Safari Pages

Firstly, I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone for their understanding during March while I left the country for this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet, experience and photograph some of the most amazing people, animals and scenery I have ever seen. Thank you also to all those who have sent emails welcoming me back and phoned to find out how the trip went.

As there is just so much to tell, I'm sure all of you will have your own particular interests and to avoid boring you with the things that you aren't interested in, I have put together a few pages offering a brief summary of each place we visited along with a very small selection of photo's to help you visualise the safari.

This was my first Father and Son trip and although I have visited places such as the United States, Hawaii, Canada, Hong Kong, Philippines, New Zealand and also driven around Australia 3 times, this trip was by far the most exciting and personally rewarding. From the adrenalin of the "Hunt" to get up close and photograph some of the worlds most amazing wild animals, to the breathtaking scenery of God's Window, Victoria Falls and The Great Pyramids, then to experience the culture of some very beautiful people such as the South African artists, Matsumo Cultural Village Dancers, people of Zimbabwe and Egyptian locals, this was truly the experience of a lifetime.

As most of you know, I was injected with a "Gramophone Needle" at birth, so I'm sure you can understand when I say that I could talk for hours about the amazing things I have experienced, but I also know that it always means a lot more when you have been there, than being told second hand. With that in mind, should any of you ever feel the urge to visit any of the places we have been on this safari, I cannot stress strongly enough that the guide is the key.

We spoke to lots of other travellers during our time overseas and almost everyone complained of seeing very little compared to our daily experiences. No, I'm not on commission however, I do believe in giving credit, where credit is due. All thanks to my father and a great deal of research and emails, I do not believe we could have found better guides for the two major parts of our trip.

Although Symen from Wild Wings Safaris makes it abundantly clear that there are no guarantees in seeing any wildlife at all, we found his skills amazing when you consider he could spot 4 inches of Buffalo horn protruding from the long grass over a kilometre away while driving at 50km p/hr and I don't think he got the name of a bird or animal wrong the entire trip. Oh yes, he also speaks 7 out of 11 of the languages, so communication with the locals is always a breeze. He's also a great cook when the Chef's hat goes on to cook up a hearty breakfast in the park. Symen is a pleasure to travel with, very informative, has a keen eye and nothing is ever too much trouble for him, making the whole experience ever so much more rewarding.

Hatem from Spring Tours and Insight Vacations, who guided us through the Egyptian leg of our trip was a truly passionate man about his country's history and traditions and only offers his services as a guide for about one week each month. The rest of the time he is teaching other guides how to be guides, so you might say we were lucky enough to have the guide of the guides. Hatem is an Egyptologist and just about everywhere we went, when Hatem enters the room, all other guides and their groups quietly move out of his way. Hatem seems to have great respect from his peers and all of this combines to give Hatem's tour group the holiday of a lifetime.

So, enough of the idle chatter and let's get down to some topical information and photo's. I have split up the tour into specific pages to make it a little easier to navigate around. I have also done my best to condense the amount of photo's to a quantity that will at least give you a brief idea of what we saw, without buy kamagra 100 mg boring you to death. We actually took over 12,000 (YES, OVER 12 THOUSAND) photo's in total, so as you can imagine, just sorting them over the last couple of weeks has been a Mammoth job.

Guide: Keith & Darren Gardiner Although we were not accompanied by Symen, this part of our trip was arranged with all transfers, accommodation and tours being pre-booked by Wild Wings Safaris. The choice of accommodation was awe inspiring to say the least and tours were professional and exciting. Wild Wings Safaris took all the stress out of knowing when and were we needed to be to experience Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Thank you Onne.(CLICK HERE)